September 07, 2012

Fur Flies at FTC Over Naming of Animal

The Federal Trade Commission has weighed in on a fur fight over what to call garments made from a fuzzy animal with rings around its eyes that is a distant relative of dogs.

Is it an Asiatic Raccoon? That's the term that's been in use since 1961 and is preferred by industry groups.

Or should it be a Raccoon Dog, as the Humane Society of the United States suggests, because that's the scientifically accepted common name for the animal, nyctereutes procyonoides?

The FTC in a Federal Register notice published today backed Asiatic Raccoon, but invited public comments before the rule is final. The FTC has jurisdiction over fur labels under the Fur Products Labeling Act.

What's not in dispute is that the animal is part of the canidae family, which includes foxes, wolves and domestic dogs — not the raccoon family, procyonidae.

For that reason, the Humane Society argued that calling it an Asiatic Raccoon is misleading. "The species is not a raccoon" and "is not just found in Asia, but . . . in numerous European countries," the Humane Society argued at a public hearing in December.

The National Retail Federation and the Fur Information Council of America countered that the animal may be a distant dog relative, but it doesn't even act like a dog — it hibernates, climbs trees, can't bark and doesn't wag its tail. It does, however, have rings around its eyes that make it look like a raccoon.

Using "Raccoon Dog" on a label "would mislead consumers into thinking that the species either was, or was closely related to, domestic dog, thereby harming nyctereutes procyonoides fur sales," they said. Already, Federated Department Stores and Lord & Taylor no longer sell the furs made from the animal because consumers mistake it for domestic dog, according to industry commenters.

The National Retail Federation suggested calling the fur "Tanuki" or "Magnut." The Humane Society objected to both because they are foreign words, not English names.

The Fur Information Council of America, Finnish Fur, and Finland's Ministries for Foreign Affairs and of Agriculture and Forestry suggested labeling nyctereutes procyonoides raised in Finland as "Finnraccoon." The Humane Society opposed the name as "industry-coined."

In the end, the FTC decided to stick with Asiatic Raccoon because "consumers likely have become familiar with the name," which has been in use on fur labels for 50 years. "If the term confused or otherwise harmed consumers, evidence of such confusion should exist," according to theFTC. "The record, however, does not contain any such evidence."

Comments

If the buyer for Lord & Taylor watched the video, which shows these frightened animals being skinned alive while crowds laugh at it's pain, perhaps they would stop worrying so much as how to market it and walk away from this industry.

Well, if they think dogs can't climb trees, they know nothing about Southern scent hounds. Beagles and Coonhounds are artists at getting wherever they want to be. It is disgusting that an industry exists to kill creatures just to make fat old women and young women with inferiority complexes feel better about themselves.

Well, sorry to disappoint you waste patrollers, this IS a duty which properly falls under the authority of the national government. I refer you to U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, " The Congress shall have Power ...[to] fix the Standard of Weights and Measures ...". I posit that this is a standard.

It happens all the time. The Slimehead became the Orange Roughy, and the Patagonian Toothfish became the Chilean Sea Bass. In that great old movie King Rat, the "hero" sells rat meat for food, calling it "mouse deer."

By golly I think we have finally uncovered a place where government spending could be cut that both sides of the aisle would agree to. Do we need the federal goverment involved in whether this is called an asiatic racoon or a racoon dog? Ain't nobody I have ever met in the hills of Ohio that has ever confused a racoon with a dog.